All you hipsters mourning the loss of carefully made Cortados and rustic swinging seats at BAD in Bandra, rejoice. The café is back bigger, better, and in BKC. #blessed.

Cardboard Cafe, BAD’s new avatar, is a safe haven for freelancers and made quite literally out of cardboard, from the brown interiors to the tables, chairs and even lamps. The menu, thankfully, includes bright, unexpected dishes that don’t taste like, well, cardboard.

Coffees, for instance, are sourced from Tamil Nadu and amongst the best in city. Pay special attention to thangkul, a ginger-honey Manipuri beverage inspired by the restaurant staff and a perfect balm for a bad day at work – pair this with a soothing selection of four different hummus variants, served with appalams. We’ve enjoyed a similar dish at BAD Café before, and the 2.0 version seems even more refined: each of creamy hummus flavours are subtly different, hinting in turn at smokiness, earthiness and in case of a mung bean version, acidity, via a pico de gallo garnish.

If you’re feeling adventurous, dig into a jalebi topped with pulled pork and orange slices, a grown-up version of the strawberry jam and bacon toast we made on special occasions in our dorm room. The contrasting flavours work like you won’t believe. For those that want to play it safe, might we recommend a Yeah baby! salad of pak choy, bean sprouts, carrots, cherry tomatoes, peanuts, raw papaya and mango, tossed with a spicy soy dressing.

Less successful is Andhra curry – radioactively coloured, it makes for a great Instagram post but proves too sweet for our taste buds. Get dessert instead: the kitchen sends out a mean almond cake with coffee meringue, but if you’re anything like us, you’ll get another serving of jalebi pork instead.